A Day in the Life of Brielle and Manasquan

It may not be that all roads lead to the water in these two towns, but it sure seems that way.

Chris Lyttle hovers near a window over Glimmer Glass, the portion of Watson Creek that separates quaint beach town Manasquan from quaint river town Brielle.
The 48-year-old Brick man looks out from his perch as an attendant for the drawbridge on Brielle Road with a unique perspective.
If he looks to the west, he sees the streets of Brielle, with manicured homes and a small-town feel.
If he looks to the east, he sees the streets of Manasquan, with Shore-shingled houses and a Cape Cod feel.
"It's not exactly like being on the Verrazano bridge," says Mike Mariolis, 56, of Hazlet, another bridge attendant working the drawbridge today. "But you couldn't ask for better. What's not to like?"
One hears that question all day in Brielle and Manasquan, the southeastern tip of Monmouth County and the kind of quiet communities where people love to live.
Between them, they take up only 3.1 square miles and have about 11,200 residents. Put another way, only 1.8 percent of county residents live here.
Those people, though, consider themselves the lucky ones.
"It's like waking up on vacation every day," says Tommy Mauro, 47, whose home at the end of Osprey Point Drive in Brielle presides over the Manasquan River and Osborn Island. "I just feel fortunate to be here."
A visitor would think today -- with drab skies pouring everything from a drizzle to a downpour -- is a bad time to be in either town.
Wrong.